Not going to knock cyclocross but I used to do Mountain bike races with a cyclocross club. In their itinery of races- they used to put on a Mountain bike race to boost income. Over the same course and after what we normally ride- the course was pretty tame.

One thing that you have to realise though is the difference in bikes. Lightweight road bikes with treaded tyres as against Lumpy MTB's with wide knobblies on. There is no way that a cyclocross could take in a full MTB course unless the rider was A1 fit and had done a lot of training on that type of riding. And there was no way that a mountain bike would have been able to attain the speeds of a proper cyclocross bike.

But Although I say the course was tame-it still had it's challenges. Instead of boards to make the riders get off the bike- There were 12" thick logs. An accomplished mountain biker could bunny hop those- or at least front wheel on and lift the rear wheel over. Thick mud and the mtb's ploughed through it- cyclocross rider ran through it. I do know what was quicker though- those cyclocross guys could jump off the bikes and carry them while running a lot faster than we could ride.

But I learnt a lot from those meetings from the cyclocross guys. How to set the bike up for mud. One of the reasons I use 1.8 tyres in muddy conditions now. They taught me the lines that ARE ridable without clogging the bike. And they taught me that I ought to get a lot fitter to be able to race in any class.

It's horses for courses as you realise and I am a roadie- or a mountain biker. So you tell me why I am Thinking ( Only thinking though) of a cyclocross bike so I can get out and do the gentler Hills and rough trails in our area on a bike that is more suited to it.